Detouring I-5 expansion is a bad idea

Legislation introduced this week by Sen. Christine Kehoe, D-San Diego, that would effectively kill the proposed widening of Interstate 5 from La Jolla through North County would wreak havoc on the region and the democratic process.

By this summer, Caltrans is expected to adopt its preferred option for as many as six new managed and general-purpose lanes for a 27-mile stretch of freeway from La Jolla to Camp Pendleton. The San Diego Association of Governments supports the widening and already has budgeted much of the cost in its 2050 Regional Transportation Plan.

Kehoe’s bill, SB 468, would take control of the freeway project away from regional planners, Caltrans and the people who voted in 2004 for a sales tax extension that promised I-5 widening. It would impose vague conditions unlikely to ever be met before widening could begin. An unspecified array of local street improvements would have to be completed first. So would the completion of the gamut of public-transit investments, Another delay would occur while new environmental mitigation work was monitored. Construction would be done in segments, sending construction costs soaring while requiring that fragile wetlands be opened and reopened because of the sequencing. Responsibility for freeway building would be turned over from people with construction experience to those without.

No matter that the freeway project already calls for double tracking of rail, express bus service, improved freeway access and extensive lagoon mitigation. No matter that SANDAG already has plans for trolley extensions to UCSD, Pacific Beach and Kearny Mesa. No matter that the region’s economy could be paralyzed; the corridor is home to 22 percent of the region’s jobs, and the bulk of $359 billion in goods moves by truck, not train.

Better public transit is vital to relieving traffic congestion in the region, which has precious few ground links to the rest of the nation. The Interstate 5 widening would help bring that about, particularly with the double tracking of rail and the managed, as opposed to general-purpose, freeway lanes. But expansion of public transit cannot supplant freeways in the foreseeable future. I-5 carries 700,000 vehicles a day and projections are for 1 million by 2030. By contrast, the Coaster carries 6,000 passengers a day. Without improvements, today’s freeway commute time of 38 minutes from La Jolla to Oceanside is expected to reach 70 minutes by 2030.

More than the region would suffer from a clogged Interstate 5. So would international commerce.

Freeway planning should be an inclusive process, not something yanked away by the Legislature.

“This bill would be a kill-shot to I-5 widening,” said Jerome Stocks, deputy mayor of Encinitas and board chairman of SANDAG.

Kehoe’s bill – a kill-shot to progress – deserves to die in committee.